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The bankruptcy trustee oversees it Tom GirardiLaw firm ‘s now trying to take millions of dollars, which alleged Tom fraudulently moved to over 100 people and businesses.
Since last month, Elissa Miller, about 7 trustees, has filed over a hundred lawsuits claiming Tom and the firm transferred money to dodge their creditors. Elissa admitted Erika Jayne of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is one of the people to whom the funds are transferred.
Elissa claimed some of the money for client funds, which Tom and his company treated like his personal piggy bank, the outlet said. In November, a Chicago judge said Tom was “running a Ponzi scheme with his clients’ money.”
Elissa is suing two different Amex subsidiaries, alleging the company transferred more than $50 million to her between December 2013 and November 2020 — a month before Girardi Keese faced a lawsuit for allegedly stealing client money.
Elissa alleged that at least $9 million of these payments came from “purchases that only benefitted Thomas, Erika, and family members and friends,” and they did not benefit Girardi Keese.
Elissa sued Erika, claiming the star was transferred $97,200 from Girardi Keese between 2015 and 2018, even though she did not work there.
The trustee said the company was “nothing more than an illegal and criminal business operated to line the pockets of Thomas, his wife, and many cohorts.”
In November, a Chicago federal judge said Tom admitted not paying four families of victims of the 2018 Lion Air crash based on a filing sealed in December 2020. The families reportedly owed a settlement fund totaling $2 million.
Elissa filed a lawsuit against not only Erika but also several former employees of the company, a country club, a private jet vendor, and others to recover the funds.
He sued Tom’s son-in-law David Lira, who is also an attorney at Girardi Keese, in an effort to allegedly recover $1.3 million from fraudulent transfers. The trustees are also suing the company that oversees the Rose Bowl stadium to take $83,701, which Tom and others allegedly paid for tickets to events at the stadium.
According to court documents obtained by Radar, Elissa stated that Tom had made payments to American Express when he found out he owed them.
“During the period when Girardi Keese was in a precarious financial situation, and did not pay his creditors, Girardi Keese began a systematic process of draining the available money, often including stolen client trust funds, among others, making distributions to certain preferred creditors or third parties from the funds from Girardi Keese’s Estate,” he said in the lawsuit.
“The primary means by which Thomas and Girardi Keese’s fraud and conspiracy was perpetrated and developed was by obtaining numerous credit cards from the Defendants, often in the names of employees and non-employees, for personal use by employees of Girardi Keese, Thomas, their friends, family, and associates- friend. Far and away, the single largest credit card company used by Thomas and Girardi Keese is AMEX,” the suit continued.
Elissa claims that Erika, her son, and some of Tom’s employees got a lot of credit cards. During the seven years before bankruptcy, the company allegedly made 767 payments to American Express, totaling $50 million.
“[With] regarding Fraudulent Transfers, no less than the amount of $9,079,528 is in the purchase account that only benefits Thomas, Erika, and family members and friends, and has nothing to do with the operation of, and does not benefit, Girardi Keese, ” according to the docs court.
The lawsuit reportedly demands American Express return the funds it allegedly received from Tom. The money returned will be used to pay off the company’s debt.